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For what it's worth, one of the S5 DVD commentary tracks mentions that the actor for Mace is trying to give off I Claudius vibes, i.e., playing the dunderhead but actually being competent underneath. My reaction to that was "umm, sure, let's go with that." He might be trying to portray Mace as a hidden genius, but the scripting and editing are doing a good job of concealing it. When Jon handed the cloak over, he told Edd to wear it, burn it, whatever, he didn't care. I don't think he was choosing Edd as his successor per se. Though since Edd is the only non-extra left in the Nights Watch, he'll probably get it.

He's not just attacking the nobles. His band of thugs attacked merchants. He vilified Marge for wearing "a year's worth of labor on her back", never mind the positive effect Marge buying an expensive dress has on the economy (seemstress makes a living, traders who get the raw materials for the seemstress to use make a living, people who produce the raw materials make a living, etc.). He looks down on his past-self for producing luxury goods, In his world view, no one should be producing or consuming anything above what they need for sustenance. I find that completely repellant.

We saw one scene of that, prior to his elevation to High Septon. Afterwards, we've only seen scenes of his armed goons destroying brothels, attacking merchants, breaking wine casks (a serious problem since medieval sanitation was horrible and drinking alcoholic beverages was much safer than drinking water). He's selling off the assets of the church to buy food to give to the poor (in the books at least, though we've seen scant evidence of that on the show). What happens when he runs out of things to sell? Where does he get the money to continue feeding the poor after he's destroyed the nobility and wrecked the economy? As crappy as feudalism is, it's still a better system than the hunter-gatherer, subsistence farmer economy that he'll reduce Westeros to. Sorry for the rant, but his backstory really irritated me. If he chose to give up his gods-given talent as a cobbler to live the life of an Ascetic, fine, his choice. Even if he wants to preach that way of life and persuade others to follow, fine. He's trying to compel everyone to live that way, and it's a huge step backwards. Show Hot Pie was last seen by Brienne and Pod at the Inn of the Crossroads, seemingly living a decent life as a cook. In the book, that inn was essentially destroyed by the multiple occupiers. Book Hot Pie was at a different inn (Inn of the Kneeling King or something like that) so he's probably still alive.

What's the High Sparrow's end game with Marge and Loras? It seems like he's using cult conversion techniques (malnutrition, sleep deprivation, continual sermonizing) like he's Jim Jones, but he still intends to put them on trial? I guess he's expecting that after he's broken them, they'll testify against themselves and this will accomplish... what? I initially thought it was a body double, but that was because of the mediocre shot compositing with the flames behind her. I could see the green-screen edges around her face and especially her hair.

If her uncle Edmure dies without children, she could have a claim on Riverrun also. Elder daughter of the elder daughter.

That would have been great if they'd had the time. One way for them to get the time -- not bother bringing back Osha. The whole scene with Ramsey was unnecessary and repetitive and was only there to remove her from the role of Rickon's protector and to show yet again how Ramsey is the bestest vilain ever. Just kill Osha off-screen and don't even bother to bring her to Winterfell. Then use the extra time to extend the meet-and-greet scene with Sansa and Jon. It really was only slightly more than the "Hi" "Hi" "Good talk" scene I joked about last week.

I kind of hated his speech. No, not kind of -- I really hated his speech. He was a cobbler working his trade, improving his product so that it sold for more money. If he was a wastrel spending his money in ways that he eventually didn't like, fine, that's his choice, but it isn't his place to make that choice for any other cobbler, mason, seamstress, etc. He might as well have been reading out of the communist manifesto, workers of the world unite and all that garbage. Cercei (of all people) had a great response to it: "He wants to tear down our world and replace it with what? Beggars in the streets?" If the High Sparrow actually meant what he said, he'd be across the Narrow Sea helping liberate slaves, who aren't making shoes, dresses, etc., because they want to.

Sansa hugging Jon brought a cheer to my lips and a tear to my eyes. Though couldn't they get Kit Harrington a box to stand on? I'm happily surprised that Dany took control of the Dothraki on her own rather than because of another last minute rescue from Drogon. Doing another Unburnt thingy contradicts what GRRM has said about the first one being unique, but what the hell, it looked cool. Super Ramsey strikes again. Really, D&D, fuck off with your Ramsey love. I really hope this wasn't part of some scheme from the Umbers because I'd rather they were actual bad guys instead of morons. I have no idea what the hell Tyrion is trying to accomplish. "Get rid of slavery in seven years". "Okay, sure [because you'll be dead or otherwise gone well before then]". And while making that deal, he managed to antagonize the Freedmen, the only people actually still on his side. I'm totally rooting for Cercei and her plots and schemes against the High Sparrow. Because seriously, fuck that guy. I just hope someone gets to punch Septa Unella in the throat, a lot.

Taken from a spoiler tagged comment but not spoilerish itself: The usual excuse is that it allows the audience to see the actor. Not sure what the excuse was this time because we didn't have any previously identified actors in that scene. In the GRRM commentary track on S02E09 Blackwater, he had quite a good rant about it. He included an anecdote from his previous TV work where a stuntman lost part of his nose because he wasn't wearing a helmet during a fight scene. IIRC that was the inspiration for Tyrion getting his nose chopped off.

That makes sense: Arya crosses 1 or 2 names off her list then, and probably assumes the name of Lady Stoneheart.

I thought I glimpsed Fitz holding the cross at one point in the promo for next week. I'm guessing that they'll play hot potato with it.

Damn, I was looking forward to reading that new Arianne chapter. If it's more travelogue, blah. She's already had a set-up travelogue chapter; two seems unnecessary. How much documentation do we need for the short trip from Dorne to the Stormlands? Jon: Hey. Sansa: Hey. [awkward silence] Jon: Good talk.

Part 1 is titled "Forgiven" so I assume they'll wrap up any guilt / PTSD for Daisy in the first 40 minutes.

Hell, at the beginning of this saga, Joffrey, the heir apparent, didn't even have one Kingsguard assigned to him -- his sworn shield was the Hound. We know that Rhaegar was at least partially motivated by his messianic beliefs about the PtwP; maybe he converted Arthur Dayne et al to the same fanaticism. They might have thought they weren't just guarding a potential heir to the throne, but were also guarding the prophesized savior of the world.

In a way that actually makes it worse. If he saved Daisy because of Andrew's feelings for her instead of it being Lash's motive, then I'm left to conclude that Lash's actual reason for being was to kill Hive. Andrew's emotions got in the way of Lash's plan, so they lost the only weapon we've seen that works against Hive just to save Daisy. "Save the cheerleader, save the world" becomes "save the cheerleader, screw the world". The list being maintained by the UN won't stay secret for very long. It's a huge bureaucracy, the names are bound to leak. Also, the public knows the UN's list exists, so hackers like that group Daisy started out with will be actively trying to find it. SHIELD is a smaller organization operating in the shadows (at least it is now), so they're less vulnerable.

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

"Lash's purpose wasn't to kill Hive... It was to save Daisy" oh FUCK OFF show. Special Snowflake status: Confirmed. During Lincoln's escape, I kept going back and forth on whether it was a set up. I wanted to think it was, but then I remember how many times so far Coulson has gotten caught flat-footed so I assumed it was a genuine escape. Glad to be wrong for once.

Regarding the laws of succession as established in the text: Westeros in general follows male-preference primogeniture: Eldest son of the eldest son inherits even in his father predeceases his grandfather. If all the sons are dead, the daughters inherit in order of birth. Some examples: Alys Karstark was her brother’s heir. He was currently in captivity, so her uncle was trying to marry her and provoke the Lannisters into killing the brother, thus giving him Karhold. Jon points out many times to Stannis that Sansa is the rightful lady of Winterfell, because (he thinks) all his brothers are dead and she’s the elder female. The entire convoluted reason that Harry is the Heir of the Vale is an elaborate reading of male-preference primogeniture. The Targaryen succession isn’t quite so straight forward. When Jaeherys’s eldest son died, leaving only a daughter (Rhaenys), theoretically she should have become his heir, but he proclaimed that his second son would succeed him. A few years later, the second son also croaked, so they had the first Great Council. They boiled it down to either (1) Rhaenys’s son Laenor (the king’s great-grandson) or (2) the king’s second son’s son Viserys. (1) wins on primogeniture, since he’s descended from the eldest line. (2) wins on proximity, since he’s a closer generation. They made up some justification that women can’t have a claim on the throne or pass on a claim to their children, but it really boiled down to (2) being an adult and (1) being a child and they didn’t want a regency. Viserys became king then cocked it all up by insisting that his eldest daughter succeed him, despite having sons through his second marriage. Thus leading to the Dance of the Dragons. So who has the best legalistic claim? Faegon then Jon by primogeniture , Dany by proximity. In the end it probably won’t matter since it’ll be decided by whoever wins the wars.

It's also a bit of foreshadowing. I noticed that the specifically didn't have her correct it to "3 brothers and one half-brother", which would also be a lie, though Arya wouldn't know it was. I'm willing to entertain the possibility that Osha and Rickon are in Winterfell as some sort of scheme, but given how much the show runners love Ramsey, I would expect that the scheme will fail. They did it last season with the old woman who tried to help Sansa. They love Ramsey so much that I'm kind of expecting if he does die, it'll be to something out of anyone's control, like a slip in the bathtub. Can't let any of the protagonists get one up over SuperRamsey.

Could make for some interesting dialog. Sam: "You broke your vows." Jon: "I'm not." Sam: "'Night falls, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death.' You're not dead." Jon: "I'm not now, but I was." Sam: "You were what?" Jon: "Dead." Sam: "You were dead?" Jon: "I got better."

I think that's open to interpretation. Varys says "treat them gently". Not sure how having their tongues removed could be considered "gentle". "If they kept their tongues" could mean "if they hold their tongues" i.e., didn't talk. Plus it's a fractured conversation overheard by a 10 year old who didn't know the context. ETA: Bronn was on the ship with Jaime that left Dorne. They had that godawful scene with the Sand Snakes where Tyene told him what he needed. I didn't see if he was on the boat with Jaime when he was bring Myrcella's corpse to shore.

Bran said that he'd heard that story a thousand times, but he never said who told him that story. I'm guessing it was Old Nan, who had a taste for embroidering her stories. I'd bet that taciturn Ned just said "It was 7 against 3, and I still would have lost to Arthur Dayne without Howland Reed's help." He wouldn't provide a lot of details about it because he's participating in a coverup already. The more lies you tell, the more lies you have to remember.

Where does it say in the books that Varys removes the tongues from his little birds? I know he talks about teaching them to read so they can sneak into people's homes/businesses and read the contents of their letters, etc. I would think they'd be able to report better and more quickly if they could still talk. I think the idea that the Umbers are playing Ramsey is wishful thinking. "First, we give him Rickon Stark as a hostage / torture victim. Then when Ramsey least expects it we... um... " It's a very Underpants Gnome plan. I'm pretty sure Lord Umber is exactly what he appears to be. The writers don't seem to care to provide any depth to tertiary characters.

Ice is a two handed greatsword that is used in fights. It's Valyrian steel so it's lighter and easier to wield than a standard steel greatsword. I'm guessing the actor couldn't wield it effectively. "Oathbreaker" -- I think the title refers to several people. Sam is breaking his oath not to leave Gilly. Dany broke her oath (though she never took one, the Dosh Kaleeen see it that way) to return to them when Drogo died. Some people will say Jon broke his NW vows, though they should have expired when he died.

Arthur Dayne duel-wielding was passable, since they needed to make him distinct from the other KG that was there. It bugged me a little when he kept twirling his swords -- a little too show-boaty. I guess he was that confident. What really annoyed me was Ned using a long-sword. Where the hell was Ice? Dean-Charles Chapman has a pretty thick London accent in real life. He's affecting the RP accent on the show, so maybe he's intentionally mimicing Sophie Turner.